Monday 19 March 2012

15mm French Indian War Test Game at Ray's.....

...testing his The Jumaville Affair FIW rules on Friday night which are his own creation to a point. I should let you know that I'm not that well this morning, I'm a little hungover, Ray is on days with me again, the Irish rugby team were a little fecking disappointing and my Mothers Day phone call opened up the guilty feelings again that only Irish mothers can do and I think the fish and chips Ray bought on Friday night were dodgy!

On to the game and pictures (all the figures belong to Ray)....

The rules are a card based system with actions (you need an action to move, change formation, fire etc....), the least you can get in a turn is one unit/one action and the best is three units/ three actions (a big difference), the quality of generalship denotes better action cards (I chose dawdler but Postie got an ass!)

Initial table set up, the British have started to clear an area to build a fort, the French have decided they don't like this idea and have dispatched a large force to throw the British out of the area..

A close up of the initial position....

These cards signified real and dummy units hidden in the woods...

The hill position with the highly skilled craftsman at work and to be protected at all costs...

The 42nd Highlanders behind redoubts....

A small militia unit holds the right flank...

A better view of the Highlanders.....

French line infantry La Reine infantry start to appear....

Quebec militia.....

Lots of real and dummy units......

Postie realising he's short...

......and much prefers umpiring!

Compagnie Francaises de la Marine and Indians clash in the woods, the marines would eventually be wiped out to a man...

More Indians and Courer de Bois tangle at the river crossing, the French would fail two morale tests and quit the field...

The card system in use, 3 actions for 1 French unit.....Ray's unused camera as umpiring is a lot more stressful than he remembered???? (It's been a while).

The highlanders split into 2 units to deal with the French attack....

French Jesuit Indians clash with Rogers Rangers, the Indians will lose but through attrition the rangers have to be pulled back but not before smashing two units of Indians....

Postie trying to figure out where he's hidden some of his hidden units....

Loyal French Indians appear in the woods....

The umpire contemplating giving Postie a swift kick in the crackers.....

Didn't get to use my "Dawgs" but victory was mine at the end....

The game only went about 3 turns of the card system, an end of turn card is in the deck, what did me and Postie think? The randomness was too random as it could give one side too much of an advantage so Ray changed that to a you go I go system but the amount of actions remaining random, the melee was a little confusing and he will be changing that too but all in all nothing wrong with the system, nice figures from a period that is very varied, another thing are random event cards in the deck and on a D20 you roll for what they are, this can be anything form units having to use actions to pull back, officers getting drunk or a unit getting a blood lust and their skill improved (this was a random pain in the arse if you ask me).

Postie had no luck and poor placement, I had a lot of luck and knocked the "merde" out of most of his units with a lot of good dice rolls, all in all the dice gods won! Ray will be discussing more about his rules on his own blog sometime soon.

Not bad at all Ray.....

51 comments:

  1. Nice pics Fran! I couldn't have taken photos and umpired at the same time, especially with that bollox Postie giving me a hard time!!
    I like the pic of the Highlanders behind the defenses from the French point of view and the pic of the Indians and Courer de Bois fighting over the ford.
    I thought the rules worked quite well, I'll have to figure something out for the Melee, but like I said at the time, it's very difficult as they're a semi-skirmish set, I'll have to do a lot of thinking????
    Nice one!!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Nice set up. And when have the French liked anything?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Cool. Looks like fun.. though couldn't there be a model proxy mover for Postie? Or at least give him some stats and let him take some actions in the game ;) I mean.. he is already on the board so..

    ReplyDelete
  4. So cute. And congrats on the win. And narration was perfect too.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Greek mothers are talented too! Ask mine mate!
    Cracking game the one you played! I am glad you won! :)
    T.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Very nice looking game. Personally I don't like card based systems but maybe its just I have been exposed to crap ones. I'm sure Ray's system was much better!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Great looking game guys. A game can never be bad when there are Indians involved!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Very interesting looking game. Sometimes randomness can be fun. I think one of the main problems is getting used to not having total control over your forces. Feel better.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Really great story with the pics and captions as you go through and the dice gods shined on you, congrats on the win.

    ReplyDelete
  10. very interesting, nice to see something exotic for a change, Lurk!

    ReplyDelete
  11. That's very good looking game; great terrain, set-up and figures. Photos are very good too. Best, Dean

    ReplyDelete
  12. Great figures, terrain, and using homegrown rules. What could be better?

    Cheers,
    Aaron

    ReplyDelete
  13. Soory to hear that you are feeling a little under the weather, but this looks like it was fun!

    ReplyDelete
  14. Looks like an epic battle! Congrats on the win!

    ReplyDelete
  15. Sounds like it's shaping up to be a nice set of rules.

    ReplyDelete
  16. I've never heard the term 'swift kick in the crackers,' but now that I have, I feel like I need to use it all the time.

    Also, hope that hangover's finally wearing off!

    ReplyDelete
  17. Nice game! The rules are fine enuff already to have a glorious battle. They'll get better as Ray burns some more creative-juice-brain-cells in the fine art of additions and revisions. Bravo...to the victor!

    ReplyDelete
  18. "Nobody has won until the dogs have been walked!!"...I think that was Mao Tse tung...but it may have been someone else..that or I just made it up.
    Congrats on the win.
    Cheers
    paul

    ReplyDelete
  19. The French failed their morale and surrendered? who say that coming?

    ReplyDelete
  20. This is wargaming at its best - a good laugh and some real stuff sorted out.

    :O)

    ReplyDelete
  21. Looks a good game, but all those individually based troops... ;)

    ReplyDelete
  22. It's almost like you thanked Ray at the end there. Is this what happens when you win?

    ReplyDelete
  23. Great to see Rays newly painted kit in action.
    Looks like an interesting scenario.
    Personally I love 'chaos' type games (such as Piquet) as the 'you can move everything every turn' types whilst nice to have such control are just too predictable/unrealistic IMHO. Doesnt stop me owning/buying/playing them though :-)

    ReplyDelete
  24. Well done! And almost a compliment towards Ray?

    The world is changing!

    Great looking miniatures and terrain, good feel of the game with how you took the pictures.

    ReplyDelete
  25. Good to see the British gave those French what for. Some great looking figures and scenery there.

    ReplyDelete
  26. Love it! ... 15mm is becoming my favorite range due to size and better models coming out day and day ...

    ReplyDelete
  27. I play a bit of Sharpe Practice which is a card- based system and sounds similar.

    One thing we like is to have two end of turn cards - once both are drawn it ends. Limits the randomness but you still get some randomness. The grasp the nettle cards add more turn variety too.

    We use coloured cards (red/blue) for our hidden units (or blinds in SP). Looks cool for no more.

    PhilH
    http://infrequentwargamer.blogspot.com/ 

    ReplyDelete
  28. Looks like a great battle! An intersting idea, dummy units...THe cards, too! And some great photos of great figs, of course!

    ReplyDelete
  29. Wow! That seems like quite the battle! The random elements seem kind of interesting, but if your using them all the time that seems a bit much! (how often are leaders drinking in battle?) and with some of the cards it seems like winning units might just run off!
    Sounds like Rays rules are pretty good! I hope they get smoothed over a bit, but they seem fun!

    ReplyDelete
  30. Cool looking game. Used a couple of card based games for ecw and love the randomness it generates. Can be a good simulation of fog of war.

    ReplyDelete
  31. From that picture it looks like he's forgotten where he's hidden his units. That just seems funny to me for some reason.

    ReplyDelete
  32. I like the board and the rules sound interesting!

    Christopher

    ReplyDelete
  33. Now all Ray needs to do is design the rules so that you don't need to roll dice and I'm sorted!

    Great pics Fran. Glad to see the Black Watch holding the High Ground

    ReplyDelete
  34. Cool pics, it looked a great game.

    ReplyDelete
  35. Very good looking figures and terrain. I am not a fan of card activation systems. The only ones I have enjoyed are one to one skirmish games, "Rules with No Name" are the best example.
    Igougo is my preference.

    ReplyDelete
  36. Oh wow that looks really fun.

    ReplyDelete
  37. I know the guilt can be bad, my mother did it to me too. My son's moved out and is sowing his oats and I'm letting him enjoy it guilt free. Once you help Ray get the rules sorted out, you guys will play a full-out game.

    ReplyDelete
  38. Looks like a great game. Even kind words used. :)

    ReplyDelete
  39. hey, that's so neat - irish people look just like the rest of us.

    i dunno what my mum was talking about.

    ReplyDelete
  40. Looks like a large number of scalps were taken!

    ReplyDelete
  41. Superb layout and good to see Ray's figures on the table too.

    ReplyDelete
  42. That is a Sharp looking French and Indian war 15mm battle! Thanks for posting this! There is not enough games of this in 15mm on the net. It's very cool to see one so well done sir! Grey in USA

    ReplyDelete